


shadow's prelude

by Astral Aeon (DreamyRequiem)



Series: king [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, headcanons treated as fact, i couldn't write luna's pov until i wrote this i realized so her eu go, lots of OCs technicall but have some backstory for my king series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 16:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12963432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamyRequiem/pseuds/Astral%20Aeon
Summary: Born under a lucky star or as the expected child, it does not matter. The fear of being forgotten in favor of those more talented is enough to lead them to each other and the future of sorrow that awaits them all.





	1. izunia

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta`d
> 
> also posting all of the chapters at once, in case y`all are curious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbeta`d
> 
> posting all chapters at once

Izunia and Ardyn Lucis Caelum are born on a star filled night.

The two boys are the sole heirs to the small kingdom of Lucis, which borders the kingdom of Tenebrae and the Solheim Empire. Often, they are told as they grow up, that they were born under a lucky star. Especially Ardyn.

For all that they are twins, Ardyn looks the most like their parents. His soft red hair, his frame--Even his face showed echoes of their parents. Izunia looks nothing like any of them, with his midnight black hair and sharp face. The only thing that connects him and Ardyn are their amber eyes, the only thing shared between all of them.

Izunia feels like an outcast within his own family.

Of course, this is never his family's fault: their mother is kind and loving, always taking care to praise them equally. Their father does that same, though in his own way: By training them equally with the sword skills their family treasures. Even Ardyn treats Izunia kindly, holding his hand when Izunia has nightmares or when the world seems too harsh.

Ardyn is the best brother Izunia could ask for.

The problem is, he is also the favored heir, for all that Izunia is the declared heir. Because Ardyn is the best, in everything. The family magic, the sword training, tutoring: Izunia is almost certain there is nothing Ardyn is not the best in.

That scares Izunia, because he feels that the only thing he truly has going for him now is his place as heir, and he could lose that at any time.

He never tells them.

That is never to say that he tells no one ever--In fact, Izunia does tell someone, eventually. He tells Marie Nox Fleuret, at the tender age of ten and twelve, respectively.

Not right away, of course. It takes time, months of them visiting one another as Tenebrae and Lucis become allies with one another. Izunia decides, during that time, that even if he thinks Marie is amazing he will tell her. Even if it means she will decide to hate him or worse--forget him, as he fears his family will him.

Marie seems shocked at his admissions at first. Izunia almost thinks it's a mistake, to tell her his fears--and then she hugs him and whispers to him.

"I feel the same."

Izunia is shocked: Marie? Afraid of being forgotten? She is strong, silken steel, and kind, and gentle. Who could ever forget her? He tells her this and she laughs, almost tearfully.

She tells him that she thinks that he is the strong one, stubborn faith and compassion. Izunia laugh a bit at first, thinking she is teasing, but no. Marie wipes away her tears and repeats it, telling him that she truly believes that he is that way.

That he is more than worthy to remember.

He laughs and cries and promises to write her, when he leaves. She promises to write back.

And so he throws himself into his training and tutoring. Izunia trains with many weapons: Great swords, lances, maces, even shields and staffs. Anything to get the edge over his brother, or least to match him. He never does but Izunia just repeats the words Marie told him and fights on.

His control of magic gets better and he learns more--all this he sends in his letters to Marie. His parents see all this and think that he is just forging an ever tighter alliance with Tenebrae.

They never realize the fate that Izunia and Marie share, now and in the far flung future.

And here's another thing: No one knows that fate. Not the Astrals and not them. They do not know the sorrow, the regrets, the grief that awaits them in future year.

What they do know now, though, is that they are losing family. Izunia's mother dies of illness when he is fourteen years old and he and Ardyn clutch each other's hands as they watch the ceremonies echo in the throne room. Neither of them can look at their father.

The next years go by much as the previous have--except now, there is a gaping hole where their mother once stood. Marie sends her condolences and wishes they had gotten there in time to at least give her a few more years with their healing magics. Izunia thanks her--because he knows that Marie means every word.

When they turn eighteen years old, everything flips on its head.

Bahamut comes and declares Ardyn the Seeker of Light, one of the only two people able to save the world from a scourge that is digging itself into the very core of the world. So he gives Ardyn a special magic, tied with the family's warp magic, an armiger. Ardyn swells with something strange, like purpose.

Izunia doesn't know what to do, when Ardyn says he has to leave Lucis, leave the castle. Their father tells him that he cannot make him stay but tells Ardyn to stay safe. And then he passes on his sword, the king's sword, to Ardyn. Izunia tries not to be sick.

His brother is favored by all, even the Astrals.

He writes to Marie, trying to sound positive. His brother had a future, a duty to the world!! Izunia had to support him. Right?

Marie scolds him and tells him to be honest with his feelings. She tells him that he will explode and hurt someone if he is not honest, even if that hurt is only emotional. Izunia knows she is right and tells her his feelings.

Because it all came rushing back, more real than before, those feelings of inadequacy. That no matter what Izunia does, the world will always chose his brother to remember over him. He wants to scream, he writes, and yell and demand to the world why no matter how hard he works, he is never good enough.

She writes back and tells him her own news. That her sister, Stella, has been declared the Saint of Light. The other healer, to aid the Seeker, in his quest to heal the world from the scourge that binds it. Marie finishes, with a shaky hand, that she understand.

Izunia asks his father if he can visit Tenebrae. Truly, it is to get away from the court of whispers that the Astrals have chosen Ardyn to be King, not just the healer of the world. But he says something else entirely. That it has been eight years since anyone from Lucis had gone--shouldn't diplomacy resume? His father seems surprised that no one had gone in those years but grants him permission to go.

He goes to Marie.

Marie didn't expect him, having not gotten his letter telling her he is coming before he arrives. She hugs him and clings. He clings back, shedding the cloak of stubborn faith he has worn for eight years.

They spend the next month doing silly things, things that are most definitely not diplomatic, racing each other through the sylleblossom fields and fishing--though Marie admits that she finds the latter activity boring. She enjoys spending time with Izunia, however, and even tells him that she thinks he'd make a good fisherman.

She makes a strange face, after she says that, but she doesn't tell him what she thought until the night he has to leave.

That night, she grabs his hand with both of her hands. Marie seems scared and she whispers to him that she wants to run away. Let Stella be the queen, she tells him, let Ardyn be the king. The world seems to wish that for them, more so than it does for us. She tells him, that they could run away. He could fish for a living and she could be a teacher.

Marie likes kids. She'd teach them well.

Izunia stares at their hands and he wants to say yes. Wants to run away and just live in some village far away from all of this. But he grabs her hands with his and says: "We have a duty, to our family."

She closes her eyes and apologizes. Izunia kisses her cheek. Marie does not reject him.

He goes home to a letter from Ardyn. He has snuck into Solheim, to heal the sick, with Stella. Who is, in Ardyn's words, venomed cotton, ready to fight to the death. Izunia wonders why she was chosen as a healer and then shakes his head.

Stella is Marie's sister. She may be more confrontational, but she must have some kindness in her.

Izunia writes back, telling him about his trip to Tenebrae, minus the last conversation he had with Marie. He also write to Marie, apologizing for kissing her so suddenly, even if it was on the cheek.

Marie's comes first, scolding him for apologizing and telling him that she had wanted to kiss him back--but he had left her too early to give her the chance. Ardyn's doesn't arrive for two more rotations between Izunia and Marie.

And so it goes on like this, for two years. Izunia is twenty when everything seems to start going wrong. First, he is visited by the astral Shiva. Izunia at first does not know why she is there, her cold wind frosting his entire room in minutes. She seems to know exactly why she is there, however.

Shiva gives him an Armiger. She does not tell him why, save for 'The King of Kings will need it.'

He is shaken and writes Marie of this development. She does not reply--and the letters he receives from Ardyn speak of a darkness that Izunia cannot see. He doesn't even know for sure if the darkness is in the world--or in Ardyn himself.

Izunia is scared, like he is a child again.

Marie writes him. She tells him: The Tenebrae crystal is destroyed. Their magic survives, but only thanks to the trident forged from the crystals remains. Marie can heal still, no matter with or without her trident. But her fire and ice and thunder--she cannot touch that magic without her trident.

He tremblingly says to her, his writing shaky, that he fears for his brother, and her sister too. Marie tells him that she doesn't know what is happening with her sister.

Izunia wants to go find his brother but he cannot. Their father is sick and he cannot leave the man, the kingdom, without some form of leader. During this time, Marie comes to him. She claims, to the court, to come for diplomacy and to inform them in person of the fate of their crystal.

She clutches her trident like a lifeline.

After it all, Izunia and Marie hide from prying eyes, their hands clasped. Izunia whispers his apologies that he could not help and that he does not know where Stella is. Marie merely shakes her head and clutches him, whispering to him that she wants to stay with him forever. Because it is the only place she feels safe anymore.

Izunia just hugs her because it's upsetting to him that she doesn't even feel safe in her own home anymore. But then, Solheim invaded their home and killed many. He supposes he should just be grateful Marie herself and her mother did not die in the invasion. That, and that they were able to fight the empire off.

They spend every night together until the day she leaves.

He doesn't realize the ramifications of this for an entire year--because Marie hides it from him. Because he is too busy trying to contact his brother, who has now disappeared entirely. Because he is too busy helping his father.

Izunia has a daughter and son and he learns this from a letter. A letter that tells him that Marie wants him to come to Tenebrae--to see the children.

Once the court learns that, whoops, the only heir still in Izunia has children, heirs of his own? They stop whispering about Ardyn. No--that is not right. They stop speaking of Ardyn as the Astral Chosen heir. Instead they whisper of him as the traitor to Lucis, the viper waiting to strike. Izunia is sick at the words.

They are so quick to turn on those they deem weak.

But he goes to Tenebrae and he meets Marie and her mother. Her mother looks her in the eye and tells him that he cannot have them both. Izunia stares back and asks why.

"Tenebrae needs an heir." She replies.

Bitterly, Izunia turns to Marie. Marie will not meet his eyes. All he can see is that she looks sad, sorrowful in a way he has only seen her loon in her worst moments. She does not argue with her mother.

Izunia wonders if she had already tried.

In the end, he has to choose his son because he knows they will never accept a Queen, not yet. Perhaps in time, the courts will accept a queen as they do a king. Now is not that time.

Marie tells him before he leaves that she has not yet named them, because she wanted him to be there. She now tells him that she will name her daughter Sophie and in turn asks him what he shall name his son.

Valens, he tells her, Valens Lucis Caelum.

He leaves. Izunia does not return to Tenebrae for three years.

During those years, he spends time with his son and acts as king. He does not yet have right to the title but in the wake of his father's illness, growing worse every day, and his brother's continued disappearance, Izunia is the only one left to rule and govern.

He is king in all but name. Lucis, Tenebrae, and Solheim are all more than aware of this.

Izunia tries to do his best by his son and his people, trying desperately to keep them all together and alive, especially as reports from Solheim begin to trickle in.

Solheim is collapsing, they say, Solheim is being eaten alive by monsters borne from Darkness. Izunia feels Shiva's cold breath on his neck with every report he reads.

So he finally, finally decides to try the magic Shiva had passed onto him.

It is just like his brother's, he thinks. But he knows he cannot heal, he cannot feel the warmth in his chest that healing brings, the warmth both his brother and Marie had told him of.

He trains it, on top of everything else he has to do. Reports, and laws, and his son, and training. Three years of this and Izunia wonders how his father ever handled it all. Perhaps his mother had been a helping hand--to help him manage his children, when he had work to do and vice versa.

Izunia is not as lucky.

But he fears Valens never meeting his mother. He fears it so when Marie's letter arrives, pleading with him to come and visit her, because she wishes for Sophie to know her father, he gives in.

They reconcile, during those months, from the hurt they caused each other. Izunia apologizes to her for feeling betrayed that she never told him and she apologizes for telling him like she had--they both accept. Izunia is surprised she accepted his.

But Valens and Sophie get along far better than Izunia had thought they would. Twin heads of black hair and bright blues eys peered up at Marie and Izunia, with toothy grins whenever they got in trouble for something.

Those months they spend as a small family are the best Izunia has had in years.

(Part of him wishes he had accepted her proposal that they run away, all those years ago. They would be happier than they are now, he thinks.)

A man comes with a report for Izunia. Ardyn is back in Lucis and he has harmed. The reports tell of a woman with him and Marie looks stricken. Izunia cannot believe his ears: Ardyn and Stella? Harming anyone? It did not seem real.

But their path was aimed at the capital. Izunia tells Marie he was going to go, to stop them--and Marie tell him she was going to come along, whether he accepted or not. He agrees, if hesitantly, because he does not want to be alone with this.

They arrive.

His father is dead.

Ardyn kills him--and Izunia is suddenly filled with fury, his very being burning with a hatred he does not understand. Ardyn has abandoned them and Izunia does not know why. He does go to strike, for vengeance for the father his brother has killed.

But Marie dies instead, Stella's rapier in her gut. Izunia catches her and clutches her and stares at Stella. He has never known her well, but he knew enough about her to know she loved Marie.

Why, he asks, why have you killed your sister?

She never answers because the moment she tries to kill him too, he beheads her. With Marie's trident, the weapon he had once trained with her on, the one weapon he had never sparred with Ardyn on, he kills his brother.

Or so he thinks, banishing Ardyn's body from Lucis with the magic of the crystal.

There is a funeral for Marie. Stella's form had melted into darkness--and wasn't that telling? Izunia almost wonders if that had actually been his brother and Marie's sister and nto just a couple of pretenders. Monsters, wearing the faces of family.

But Shiva's whisper confirms that they were the people they seemed to be. Izunia wants to weep, but he stops himself until he is behind closed doors. He can't show weakness anymore, because he is all that Lucis has left.

Marie's mother brings Valens back home and forbids Izunia from returning to Tenebrae in his lifetime. Izunia bows his head and hands over Marie's trident. He has no right, after all, to the trident or to walk on the lands that his dead lover was meant to rule.

And so time passes.

Izunia is forever in mourning, for his brother and father, for Marie. He smiles as best he can for his son, so that Valens does not worry for him as he did his father. Valens does not understand he has lost a mother, though: Marie had only been in his life for a few short months that he will not remember.

Marie is forgotten by all, except Izunia.

He knows, under his cloak of stubborn faith and compassion, that he will fare the same fate. No one will remember him and that is just as well: He does not fear it the same way he did as a child.

Izunia is fifty-nine when he dies, a former Solheim sniper turned mercenary shooting him in the chest with an arrow. It goes straight through and no one can heal it. Valens weeps over his body as Izunia cups his son's face.

Do not weep for me, he wants to say, because I am going to your mother. Remember that.

Izunia Lucis Caelum dies as he is born, under the cloak of stars surrounded by his family.

He is remembered.

His brother is not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> actually teared up a bit....when writing the end of this chapter...


	2. marie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbeta`d

Marie Nox Fleuret is the expected child.

Stella Nox Fleuret is not.

That is not to say that Stella is unwanted. In actuality, Tenebrae cheers and celebrates for the second child as much as the first, if not more. After all, being expected has nothing to do with want.

But the twins are twins, almost completely identical. The only different is in the hair. Marie's is softer than Stella's and only grows in that way as they become adults--but that is when they are adults.

As children Stella has everything one could want. She may not have the right mindset for healing, but the fact that she can heal at all puts her miles ahead of Marie, who cannot even summon an orb of light to guide her way in the dark.

Marie has only one thing over her sister: A guile that allows Marie the ability to, well, play the politics game. Stella is straight forward and blunt--she is not built for politics or convincing people by using their own words against them.

It won't stop her sister from learning, though, Marie knew. Which left Marie to fight for her magic, against what feels like unbearable odds.

Unlike her counterpart in Lucis, Marie does not worry too much at first that she will be replaced and forgotten. Yes, she worries that her magic was not good enough for Tenebrae Queen and that her sister is better suited on that part.

It's not until Stella truly begins to excel in quite literally everything that Marie begins to fear for herself. Tenebrae is paradoxically cut throat and compassionate in turn and Marie knows that if Stella is the better choice for Queen? They will make her queen. A few minutes difference in birth will mean nothing.

So Marie takes every single one of her flaws and works on them, motivated by fear and worry. She will not fall behind her sister, she will not be lost to annals of history.

Almost desperately, she tries to be remembered.

She spends six years tearing herself apart trying to keep up her with her sister. Her magic still falters beneath her commands, despite her successes in everything else. It's not until her father returns home in a coma that Marie's magic reacts.

It's unconscious, while she's clasping his hand and begging him to wake up. Marie never notices her glowing hands or the light that seeps into her father's form, not until he starts coughing and wakes, blinking his eyes at her. She cries, unknowing of what she had done.

Her magic is awakened and she can finally begin her training in earnest.

Her mother has her work on her light, spinning orbs of light through the world as she dances, the easiest way for her to channel her magic. Stella watches on, calling out encouragement to her sister whenever Marie faltered.

When Marie is nine, her mother explains to them both that light is the sign of their mastery of their magic. The strength of their light shows how much they have master their own magic--and she shows up her own light, a brilliant light that, in Marie's opinion, could rival the sun.

"This is why Solheim never attacks us," Her mother says, "Solheim fears us too much to attack us. They know our mastery of magic is too much for them--they would lose too much than gain."

Marie wonders if that's really why.

Their father dies, when she is eleven years old. Marie does not know how to deal with, besides to sob like the child that she is. Stella holds her hand, not shedding a single tear as she stares resolutely forward and beyond her sorrow and grief. Marie wishes she had her sister's strength.

In the year following, Marie treads through life with a somber weakness that she regrets.

(Her kindness does not make her weak--but Marie is too tired for a twelve year old. She has lost too much of herself to the sharp edges of Tenebrae to realize that she is kind and that it is not a weakness.)

When the Lucis Royals arrive, Marie feels something every than weakness, regret, and grief. She doesn't know what to call it but the elder of the Lucis twins is whom comes to her, smiling and compassionate and stubborn faith.

Marie likes him, and thinks 'is this what a friend is?' She's not really sure because while it reminds her of her sister--how she feels for Stella--it seems different. Marie wonders when she'll figure out the difference.

But Izunia is kind and so Marie shows him the kindness of Tenebrae and none of the sharp edges that have cut her. He enjoys the sylleblossoms and ponds, peering into the water to see the fish swimming about. She tells him about how her father used to fish there.

He never asks where her father is. Marie wonders if his parents had already told him.

Meanwhile, she can see Stella bonding with Ardyn, smirking with him as they sass and tease those around them. Best friends, their parents say, good diplomatic relations.

Izunia idolizes his brother, she notices during this time, more so than Marie does Stella. Don't get her wrong, she thinks Stella is amazing. But Marie is fighting tooth and nail so that she will be just as amazing.

(So she will not be forgotten.)

It's the last week before they leave when Izunia tells her that he feels like nothing. Like he will be forgotten in the waves of time and no one will ever miss him. Not even his own family, his parents, his brother.

Marie is shocked. For all that she kew Izunia had idolized his brother, she had never thought he felt that way. He is all stubborn faith and compassion, which Marie deeply envies. She tells him that she could never forget him, because of that, and that she sometimes feels the same.

Izunia disagrees with her on the subject of him--but tells her he sees her as silken steel and kindness and gentle. She laughs because she has never seen herself as kind or gentle--but perhaps she was, with Izunia.

Maybe that was what Tenebrae needed, a hand of gentle kindness, and not a sword of steel, like her sister.

Her resolve to become Queen hardened and they agree to write each other. Izunia leaves but he writes. Writes of his own training and tutoring and how his brother still beats him battles. Marie replies with letters smelling of sylleblossoms and tells him of her own training with a staff.

He asks, why a staff?

Because a sword is not for me, she replies.

Izunia doesn't question her decision, which is more that Marie could say of her mother and sister. After all, it had been tradition for them to learn to use the family rapier and Marie was spitting on that tradition, gripping a staff with fierce conviction.

Years pass and letters come and go but Marie learns of Izunia's mother's death not from him but a report from an agent near the border. She's somewhat hurt he didn't tell her but when she asks why, he merely says that he still can't believe she's gone and that by writing that she was dead, it would be true forever.

Marie cannot fault him that, remembering her year of numb sorrow after her father's death.

She wonders what the world is like, in Lucis. Solheim looks at Lucis and sees nothing worth ruling. Tenebrae sees Lucis an ally in that it can keep them safer than if they tried to defend themselves against Solheim alone. Marie looks at Lucis and sees Izunia.

Why would he ever think he would not be King of Lucis? All that she hears and knows of the Kingdom tells her that he is the king that is meant to rule, no matter how more capable Ardyn might seem.

Marie never asks, even as years pass and suitors begin to come and go from the palace. Marie does not like any of them and so rejects them. Stella rejects them for entirely different reasons, ones that Marie will never tell their mother. Better their mother never knows Stella will only ever have a child, a heir through adoption.

They eventually reach the tender age of twenty, neither of them with a sign of a husband. Their mother seems ready to despair--and then Bahamut appears. He bows to them, and tells them of the darkness eating away at the core of their world. Of the evil that is being cultivated within Solheim's borders. Their mother demands to know why that matters.

"Because your daughter is the Saint of Light," Bahamut says, staring at Stella, "Only she and the Seeker can heal the darkness."

Stella seems excited and Marie cannot entirely blame her. From Bahamut's words, it is clear that Stella would have to leave the castle, the capital and neither of them have ever left the capital let alone Tenebrae before.

It all leaves a sour taste in Marie's mouth and a dreadful feeling that something is going to go wrong.

Marie congratulates her sister for her Astral given duty and waits for Izunia's letter, for all that she wants to write him about this now. When it arrives, she is hit with the fact that Ardyn, too, is given the same duty by the Astrals.

 

She tells him of Stella and her worry--her feeling that something is wrong, will go wrong. He replies to her that while he doesn't like it, he's going to have to accept it, with Ardyn. Izunia gives her good luck with whatever Marie decides to do with Stella.

Which begs the question: What shall she do?

In the end, Marie takes Stella to the side and tells her that she won't stop her from going but she has a bad feeling about all this. That something bad is going to happen, so if something ever feels wrong, please come home.

Stella laughs, pats her arm, and tells her she promises to come home, if she does.

But here's the thing: That is a lie. When the time comes, when she feels the darkness festering beneath her and Ardyn's skins, she will not tell anyone. She will not come home to her worried sister, because she thinks that she will be fine.

She will not be. But she doesn't know that yet, does she?

Marie watches her go and prays to the Astral for her safety. The letters continue but now she is too sending letters to her sister. Stella tells her of all the thing she and Ardyn do, about how he definitely would have to adopt an heir like she would have to, if she became Queen. 

It's a wonder that Stella doesn't realize how different Lucis and Tenebrae are from Ardyn. Marie wonders if that has anything to do with Ardyn himself, however. She wishes she had gotten to know him better, when he had visited Tenebrae with Izunia back then. All she has is Izunia's words to judge him by.

Izunia visits, during those first months, grinning and teasing. They have fun, spinning and running through fields. Marie fishes with him, even when she is bored out of her mind by the activity. All of this brings back ancient doubts about becoming queen.

The day Izunia is meant to leave, she asks him if he wants to run away with her. He could become a fisherman, she tells him, and she could teach kids! She likes kids, she could teach them well--but he clasps her hand and whispers that they cannot. That they have a duty to their countries and families, more so than their own happiness. Marie swallows and agrees.

Izunia returns to Lucis and Marie wishes he would stay.

Two years after Stella leaves, Solheim attacks. They burn the palace and reduce the Tenebrae Crystal to shards that Marie painstakingly picks up piece by piece. They kill servants and soldiers alike and it is only her mother's last spell before the offensive magic from the crystal fades from her that sends them fleeing.

Despite recovering the shards, she cannot restore the crystal. What Marie learns she can do, from the frosty whisper in her ear, is create a staff, a Trident. It will only lend it's wielder the offensive magic the crystal had once shared with all of the Fleurets, but it would have to be enough.

Marie goes to Lucis, after creating the Trident. She tells the court and Izunia, acting as regent as his father decays in his illness, what has happened. She hides with Izunia, for the next weeks, desperate for the safety she feels only with Izunia.

Stella once gave her safety, but her sister is gone. Her mother is too bitter to be safe and Tenebrae--Solheim has already proven Tenebrae is not safe.

Izunia is.

Six months, after sharing beds with Izunia, Marie regrets some of the choices they made, if only because now she had to fight her mother on Izunia's behalf. If she bears this child, they must be Lucis' heir, she argues. Her mother argues back, telling her that it must be Tenebrae's.

Her mother never makes comment on the 'if'. Marie is thankful for that, because it would be a lie to say she considered not keeping the baby. She did not think she was ready for a child, if she ever would be. And Izunia? Well, he already has enough to deal with without a child.

But she keeps the child and has twins. Marie argues with her mother more, over their fates, until she is able to grant at least one of them the right to Lucis. Marie calls for Izunia.

He is upset and she knows this. Izunia does not speak with her alone, the children or her mother always there. It feels strange, not to be able to talk with him alone. But she does not apologize, not yet. Not until Izunia realizes that, while she may have a made a mistake in not telling him, that does not mean he must act like a child with her.

Izunia chooses their son and names him Valens. Marie names their daughter Sophie and cradles her as Izunia returns to Lucis with Valens.

It is much easier, for her, those three years. Her mother is still well enough to work as Queen which leaves Marie to take care of Sophie and small project that her mother eventually hoists onto her, so that Marie may finally begin a transition into her role as Queen.

Marie wishes she could go and support Izunia but she fears even sending him a letter. She wishes she had said something before he left, even if it was only to tell him that she was not sorry for not telling him sooner, but for telling him in the way she had.

She sighs, and moves on for those three years, a part of her forever locked in that love with Izunia. Eventually, however, Marie wonders if Sophie never knowing her father is best. Even if she ever only knows him as the kind parental monarch of Lucis, that would be enough.

So Marie pleads with Izunia. To her surprise, he gives it easily, coming to her within weeks. Valens is tiny and black haired, just as Sophie is. In fact, were it not for the white dress and simple black clothes the twins each wore, Marie wonders if she could even tell the difference.

Like her, and Stella.

She and Izunia exchange apologies. Izunia scolds her a bit, not for her apology, but for giving it. "I was wrong to be so upset with you--If you hadn't wanted to tell me, that is your right. I am sorry," Izunia says, expression serious.

Marie cannot help her tearful laugh as she tells him that he's a silly man, that while he may have been in the wrong, that doesn't mean she won't forgive him.

Sophie and Valens turn out to be little terrors together, clicking in a way that surprised Marie. Neither held any possible resentment towards the other--but perhaps that was because they did not yet see each other as siblings. Marie suddenly wonders if she resents Stella.

...Maybe a little, she admits to herself.

A Lucis Agent comes to them, a couple months after Izunia arrives. He tells them of Ardyn and Stella and their travels to Lucis' capital--and the murder and death that follows them. Marie cannot believe it and neither does Izunia.

Izunia planned to go alone to Lucis and Marie puts her foot down: She will not let him handle their siblings alone. As Stella's older sister, it was time for her to act like it.

They go to stop them, from whatever it is they plan to do. Marie does not really expect what they find: Izunia's dead father, Ardyn's blade stained with blood, and Stella's cold expression of ice.

Shiva's breath is on her neck as she whispers _oh_ _Oracle, your sister is gone._

Izunia is blinded by his rage and attacks his brother, seeking vengeance for a dead father. Stella strikes out as if to protect Ardyn from the justice his brother wishes to serve.

Marie cannot watch Izunia die.

So she dies instead, growing cold in Izunia's embrace. Her daughter is safe in Tenebrae and will be in future years groomed to be Queen and Oracle, wielder of the Trident Marie leaves behind. Valens will be king of Lucis, after his father dies.

But, oh, here is the thing. For all that she is the first Oracle, the first one who wield the Trident, to make it, she is forgotten.

Marie Nox Fleuret is forgotten, as expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i purposefully wrote these two chapters to mirror each other.


	3. beyond

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbeta`d

Izunia loves living in the Beyond.

His father and mother are there. Marie is there and eventually, so is his children. Izunia watches on as Lucis grows in size in the wake of Solheim's fall. Watches as, while he still lived, Valens builds Insomnia. Watches as Sophie becomes a great Queen and the first named Oracle.

He is so proud of them all.

And they are all happy, here. No more death and suffering--no more tragedy. Izunia clasps Marie's hand and they run through sylleblossoms and fish in the ponds they find, like those peaceful times before they truly lost it all.

The only problem is that Ardyn is not there. Stella is not there. He does not know why--He killed them both, so surely they must be there? But no one in the entire Beyond has seen them, heard of them.

Where could they be?

He finds out when Niflheim raises its head, looking far too much like its predecessor Solheim. He finds out when he sees their chancellor, Ardyn Izunia, a man who should be years, decades, centuries dead. Izunia wants to scream, because for all that he looks like his brother, Ardyn Izunia is not him.

His brother could never be so cruel, surely?

Stella is there too, bearing the name Stella Marie. Marie is sick when she finds this out, clinging to Izunia's hand when no one is watching. Izunia is thankful for it, because he needs her for comfort perhap more than she needs him.

Shiva comes, Bahamut following her. The Glacian settles and tells them _the King of Kings and his Oracle will be born soon._

Marie asks why she is telling them.

 _Because_ , Shiva says, _I felt that perhaps you would like to right your own mistakes instead of letting an innocent soul take your burden._

Izunia wants to yell at her--It is not their fault that Ardyn and Stella became that way. They both tried so very hard to stop them--but he realizes that the mistake she means is not stopping them to begin with, but the mistake of not truly killing them when he had tried.

He clutches Marie's hand for a second and then let’s go. I'll do it, he says. Because she is right: How can he drag someone innocent into this, when it is his responsibility as Ardyn's older brother?

Marie straigthens and tells them the same: She will do it too. Shiva bows her head and Bahamut moves forward, his expression hidden by armor. _You will have to die, you realize? Die to end the darkness and scourge upon our star._

"That's fine," Izunia says, "I've already died once. What's one more time?"

And so it is done: Izunia shall be King of Kings, to bring the dawn, and Marie shall be the Last Oracle, to guide him to that dawn.

Marie is born first, as Lunafreya Nox Fleuret. She is tiny but strong and she had a brother to rely on, now, and parents who will shield her from the sharp edges of the world like Marie never was.

Shiva has gone to the Fleurets during this time, acting as Gentiana the Messenger, to watch over Marie. Izunia does the same from Beyond, worried for her. She is his friend, more so than anything else. He does not want her to die and wishes that he does not remember it all until he walks to death.

And so Izunia waits four years for Regis and Aulea to have their child. Their heir. When the time comes, Izunia closes his eyes and waits as he feels himself shatter and reform--

* * *

Noctis Lucis Caelum is born under a lucky star, they say, full of life and vigor. He seems ready to fight for Lucis against the world.

He is already ready to die, they do not say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> start of the end

**Author's Note:**

> i actually.....teared up a bit when i wrote the last bit of this chapter......


End file.
